MJ: How does your Teacher Education Program train teachers to motivate students to succeed in school and attend college?

ELM: We try to prepare our teachers to view children as having resources rather than deficiencies that need to be fixed up. Therefore, our teachers have very high expectations for all the students they teach, and we really mean that all students should be prepared for college if that is their choice.

MJ: How do you ensure that teachers have high expectations for their students?

ELM: We expect our teachers to get very well acquainted with their students, the families, and the communities where they work. One theory that guides our work with teachers is that people learn from each other. No one person is an expert. Students, families, and communities all have expertise, and teachers need to add that knowledge to their own. Although some people look at children and communities as having deficits, we see them as having resources and particular abilities that teachers can help strengthen. We learn from each other.

We make special efforts to recruit our students from innner-city neighborhoods.

MJ: What efforts do you make to recruit young people into teaching?

ELM: We make special efforts to recruit our students from inner-city neighborhoods. UCLA has worked with some of these districts for several years. We even have young children come and participate in the summer with us and have them become acquainted with people that are in our Teacher Education Program so they can see teaching as a viable career.

MJ: Do you work with para-professionals to enable them to move into your Teacher Education Program?

ELM: We are working with LAUSD on an alternative certification program along with the teacher’s union, school district, UCLA Extension, and our graduate school. This program is designed to help people who already have teaching jobs become fully qualified teachers. They work in our graduate program here at UCLA. Many people in this program were para-professionals, but we do not specifically have a connection with a para-professional program.

MJ: How many of your teachers are now teaching in inner-cities?

ELM: All of them. 100%.

MJ: Since I am a Lynwood parent, I am interested in my home community. How many teachers from your program can be placed in Lynwood schools next year?

ELM: At the current time, we do not have any student-teachers placed in Lynwood. We would have to meet with the Lynwood school district and talk about Lynwood’s goals, our goals, and how we would work together.

MJ: What can Lynwood community members do to assist you in bringing your program into Lynwood?

ELM: Community members can talk to their board of education and administrative staff about what they want for their kids. Then, they would want to talk about whether UCLA’s kind of teacher would be a good match for Lynwood children and schools.

MJ: I would like to thank you for the honor to interview you. And Parent U-Turn wants to say thank you very much and to keep up with the good work.